


The Amity Park Haunting: A Grave Mistake Part 2

by writting_mistakes



Series: The Amity Park Haunting [2]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Multi, Strong Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:02:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23542045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writting_mistakes/pseuds/writting_mistakes
Summary: The town of Amity Park is under attack by ghosts, but everyone knows that by now. For dozens of years, Amity Park citizens cowered away in their homes, hoping that they wouldn’t get haunted, until a hero rose up to fight against the ghosts, a hero by the name of Jason Baxter. As things begin to die down and the town returns to normal, Jason is suddenly murdered by a mystery ghost. Now, the torch has been passed on to his irresponsible, and newly orphaned son, Dash. To complete his ghost fighting training, Dash is taken in by the Fenton family, none other than his father’s former partners, as they teach him how to uphold his father’s legacy, but they unwittingly are harboring a ghost in their midst....After the accident in the lab, Danny wakes up to realize that he possesses the powers of a ghost and struggles to deal with the after effects as well as the crippling existential dread. Knowing that he’ll likely be murdered by some ghost hunter, if not his own parents, if he reveals this fact, he decides to keep it a secret, especially from Dash. But things only get more complicated when a new ghost arrives in town and Danny realizes that it’s his responsibility to stop it.
Relationships: Danny Fenton/Sam Manson, Dash Baxter/Danny Fenton, Tucker Foley/Sam Manson
Series: The Amity Park Haunting [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1685203
Comments: 6
Kudos: 33





	1. Waking Up Dead

The intense pain and head splitting confusion, gives way to a deep seeded sense of fear that overtakes my body, leaving me stiff and unmoving. My first instinct is to open my eyes, but I can’t, instead I am trapped in a sea of pitch black darkness, surrounding me completely, save for a few quick flashes of green at the edges of my vision, though subtle and barely there for a second. The presence of green light grows in my sights, until I finally manage to open my eyes and find myself surrounded by an endless green void.

My direct surroundings seem to be completely empty, but I can see a few complex structures in the distance in every direction that I look, which I take note of as I spin around in a confused circle. Eventually, common sense hits me and I hurriedly check my body for any wounds, finding none, but noticing something odd as I take stock of the suit I’m wearing, confused by the black body and white gloves. “Wasn’t this thing white before?” I ask to no one in particular as I stare down at the inverted suit that covers my body.

“Danny!” My mother’s voice snaps me out of my trance and back into reality. I spring up out of my position on the ground, groaning as I feel the force of the ghost portal effecting my whole body, but when I look down, I notice that I’m still wearing the weird suit. Ignoring that problem for now, I collapse back onto the floor and wave my hand in the air.

“Over here mom...” I sigh, my voice barely above a whisper, while a wave of exhaustion hits me like a ton of bricks. “Please help me...” In a last ditch effort of self-preservation, I call out to my mother, feeling the last of my energy drain away with those words.

“Danny? Are you down here?” I hear mom calling to me again, but don’t have anymore strength left in me as I sit motionless on the cold metal of the machine. “Where did he run off to?” The only thing that I can move at this point are my eyes which slowly move around the room, taking in all of the excruciating details of the room despite the darkness, and I remember the moment just before I passed out, when the machine was about to explode, and considering the state that the room is in, it looks like it blew up despite my best efforts to contain it. I hear mom traipse across the room, crunching broken glass beneath her feat as dad tries to turn on the light switch behind her. 

“The lights aren’t working honey,” dad states.

“I’ve got a flashlight, dear,” she responds sweetly, turning on the light and nearly blinding me with its sudden presence. “It’s such a mess down here!” The shock in her voice leads me to believe that she wasn’t expecting anything when she came down here.

_Did they seriously not hear the basement explode?_

“Must’ve been the ghosts!” Dad shouts grumpily.

“This is one mess that we can’t blame on the ghosts, Jack,” mom corrects him. “I didn’t see him leave, did you?”

“Must’ve slipped out when we weren’t looking, probably went to Tucker’s house,” Dad responds. Frustrated, I try to call out to them again, but my words don’t come out. Finally, the lights in the room switch back on, and I fully expect them to see my body lying on the ground.

“Oh my god, Jack!” Mom yells. “You really left a mess! No wonder Danny didn’t want to stay down here.”

_They can’t see me? ___

__“I promise I’ll clean it all up,” he reassures her, though it’s only wishful thinking, especially since I completely destroyed most of the room. By some miracle, though, the portal around me seems unharmed. I manage to turn my head to a more comfortable position on its side where my reflection startles me, or lack thereof. Alarmed, I reach a shaking hand up in front of my face and see that there is nothing there._ _

__“WHAT THE FUCK?” My voice echoes off the walls, startling my parents, who pull out ghost guns from their matching utility belts._ _

__“Who’s there?” Mom tries to rationalize the situation. Meanwhile, dad jumps to the most extreme conclusion immediately._ _

__“GHOST!” He yells, his gruff voice making him sound far more intimidating than he actually is, especially when I am the one that he is targeting. A strange tingling sensation overtakes my body, and suddenly, I am falling through the floor._ _

__“Woah, wait!” I shout, hoping that it will stop me. Gaining control of my muscles for as long as I can, I propel myself towards the surface by my arms, swimming through the ground as if it were water. Once I break through the ground, I find myself a few blocks away in an alley, and my power fades away in time for me to collapse once again, lying on my back from exhaustion. I notice a rain water drain along the side of the alley has collected a large puddle beneath it, so I roll onto my stomach and crawl on all fours over to it and stare at my reflection, shocked by what I see._ _

I have snow white hair and glowing green eyes, the opposite of my normally black hair and blue eyes, and my suit is in fact inverted as well. Panicked and disbelieving my eyes, I fall backwards, struggling to get out of the suit as quickly as I can, my normal clothes hidden underneath, surprisingly the colors are not inverted, then I turn the suit around searching the collar for the evidence that this is in fact my body. I freeze when my finger slides over the delicate stitching that my mother added to the inner layer of the suit, heart sinking as I come to a disturbing realization. _Did I die? _Falling onto my hands and knees, I scurry back over to the puddle, touching my face and dragging my fingers through my hair, trying to brush off the white coloring to no avail.__

Panic sets into my body and I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to drown out my busy thoughts, hoping that when I open them I’ll see something different, but no matter how many times I blink them shut, it doesn’t change anything. _Oh god... I-I died in that portal... I was so stupid... my own stupidity killed me... I knew that’s how I was gonna go out, but I didn’t expect it to be this soon! Oh god...What about my parents and Jazz? And what about Sam and Tucker? I’ll never be able to see them again. Oh— oh god... _I feel myself gasping for breath and clutch my chest in pain, hoping to find relief, until I collapse face first into the puddle as my body shuts down on me and I lose consciousness.__

I wake up sputtering, spitting the puddle water out of my mouth and coughing after getting some of it in my lungs. I scotch over to lean on the wall with my arms wrapped tightly around my knees in comfort, feeling the stress of the day getting to me. _I thought being dead meant that you didn’t have to worry about things like drowning. _Casually, I glance back at my reflection in the puddle to wipe the water off my face, not expecting to see anything special, but surprising myself when I see a pair of bright blue eyes staring back at me. I leap towards the water and hover over it, pulling at my face to make sure that it is truly me and that I’m back to normal, as tears of joy form in my eyes and I can’t help but sob with my head knelt against the ground, the emotions overcoming me. I breathe a heavy sigh of relief, wiping the tears from my face as I look at my reflection from every angle that I can see, running my hands through my hair in excitement and letting out a weak laugh.__

__Once I’ve calmed down, I hurriedly stand up, feeling rejuvenated after my nap, and rush home, leaving the jumpsuit behind in a dumpster. When I pull out my phone to check the time, I see that I broke it at some point during the chaos, as the screen is shattered and falling off, while the phone itself won’t even turn on. “Damn it,” I breathe, picking up my pace to a sprint as I make my way back towards the house. When I get there I see Sam and Tucker standing at the door, talking to my parents._ _

__“What are you guys doing here?” I call out, praying that they haven’t already said anything about the portal._ _

__“Danny?” Sam races down the steps and throws herself into my arms, making me flinch at another strong impact against my already fragile body. “We were calling you and you weren’t picking up! Your parents called to ask where you were and we—”_ _

__“Sam, it’s okay,” I smile gently at her, calming her nerves. “I just went for a walk. I needed to get out. But I fell and broke my phone.” I show everyone the useless device._ _

__“Oh, honey,” mom comes down the stairs to give me a hug and dad follows, sweeping mom and I up into his arms. “We were worried about you since you didn’t say anything. From now on you have to tell us where you are!” She whacks me on the head and I whimper softly in pain. “We get that you’re upset about everything that’s been going on...”_ _

__“Mom, I’m okay,” I tell her, then direct my attention towards the rest of the group, noticing that Jazz has appeared in the doorway. “I’m really fine guys.” I squeeze mom into one last hug and proceed up the stairs, gesturing towards Sam and Tucker. “You guys wanna come in?” They follow me wordlessly as we head to my room, passing by Dash, who leans casually on the stair railing, pretending he wasn’t just listening in on our conversation._ _

__Once we get to my room, I shut us in and lock the door so that no one can come in while we talk. “I’m sure you guys are wondering what happened,” I say without turning around._ _

__“You bet your ass we are!” Sam says, her voice dripping with anger._ _

__“What the hell happened, Danny?” Tucker asks, seeming more worried than anything._ _

__“Th—” I stop myself, wondering if it’s safe to tell them, especially in this house. Feeling emboldened with courage, I turn around and approach the bed, looking between both of them as I speak. “Can I trust you guys?”_ _

__“What?” Sam spits._ _

__“Of course you can!” Tucker sounds even more offended than Sam does._ _

__“Do you trust me?”_ _

__“Yes,” they both speak simultaneously and without hesitation, which warms my heart._ _

__“Then,” I pause, trying to find my words. “I don’t know how to explain this to you, but I just need you guys to give me some time. I promise that I will tell you once I figure this out.”_ _

__“Figure what out?” Tucker inquires._ _

__“We just wanna know what happened down there!” Sam shouts._ _

__“And I promise I will tell you, so please drop it for now?” I plead with them both. “You said you trust me.” They both look away from me in that moment, rightfully pissed._ _

__“Fine.” Sam stands up, pulling Tucker along with her. “Call us when you’re ready to share.” Her voice is filled with spite, but she still respects my decision, which makes me feel a bit better about this all. Once they leave, I crash onto the bed, feeling the fatigue hit me like a truck, but I’m too restless to sleep._ _

_Maybe it was all just a dream or a hallucination. All the damage down there could’ve been done by dad. But I did wake up in that alley. And Sam and Tuck saw the portal blow up, at least I think they did. I probably should’ve asked them, but I just didn’t want them to pry. And I don’t want to talk about it here, since anyone could be listening in. One mention of the fact that I’m a ghost and I’m dead. Oh... oh my god... my parents! What would they do if they found out? Would they try to run tests on me? Kill me? Probably. Would they still even love me after I mutated myself into the thing that they hate most? But if I’m a ghost then how can I still pass off as a human? That other form with the eyes, that is definitely a ghostly form, or at least it looks like it, but this form looks exactly the same as the old me. So am I half dead? But you can’t be half dead! My heart is still beating and I’m still breathing so I’m alive! I’m still alive... I have to be... right? ___


	2. Cold

I hadn’t realized that I’d fallen asleep until I wake with a start when I hear the door to my room open, looking up with groggy eyes to see Dash standing in my doorway like a deer in headlights. “What do you want?” I groan, plopping my head back down on the pillow.

“Uh, sorry, I thought that this was Jazz’s room,” his apology throws me off guard, but not long enough to ignore his follow up.

“Why are you looking for Jazz?” My body cries as I stand up and walk forward to meet Dash at the door. “And you should knock before barging into someone’s room.”

“I did knock,” he says plainly, his face looking more innocent than usual, likely because he wants my help.

“Whatever.” I brush my hair out of my face, waiting for him to continue. “Well? What is it?”

“Oh.” I watch as he wrings his hands shyly, looking like a completely different person from the confident jerk he is at school. “I can’t find my room. Your parents said they put my stuff in there and I wanted to take a shower.”

“It’s...” I go to point out where his room is to him, but worry that if I let him wander around aimlessly, he might barge in on Jazz like he did to me. “I’ll show you.” I push past him through the door and head down the hall, trying to avoid looking at him too much. “Did my parents give you a tour of the downstairs? I mean, there’s not much, just the kitchen, living room, their bedroom and the stairs to the basement.” I awkwardly attempt to be a good host, giving up at my miserable failure and leaving us to walk in silence for a bit before Dash breaks it.

“Uh, your house is really big, I forgot that,” he says, his voice strained in discomfort.

“So here’s the bathroom,” I change the subject, pointing to the opened bathroom door and not stopping to show him the inside. “And across the hall is Jazz’s room. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that you’re not allowed in there unless she says it’s okay. You know what? Just make that a rule for all of our rooms.”

“Okay...” we continue down the hall quietly, passing by a few more rooms that my parents use for storage or ghost hunting stuff, until we reach a door near the end of the corridor.

“This is your room.” I open the door to the guest room for him, giving him a brief look of the interior before turning to leave. “I’m sure my parents would be fine with you decorating it and such if you want. And we will respect your privacy if you respect ours.” I begin to walk away, but remember something important. “Oh! And if my parents didn’t tell you, all three of us share that bathroom so don’t waste too much time in there if you can help it.”

“I won’t,” he assures me. Suddenly, I feel a chill run over my body and when I exhale, my breath comes out in a pale blue fog. I look towards Dash, hoping he didn’t notice, but he only looks down at me with a confused frown. “Are you cold, or something Fenton?”

“Ah...” I try to brush it off, wondering what the hell it is myself, but can’t come up with a good enough excuse. “Yeah a bit.” I feel the chill run down my spine yet again and brace myself for the cold rush of air, letting it escape from my body like a hiccup. “Um... I’m gonna go. Have fun in your new room.” I awkwardly wave to him as I scurry back down the hall, slamming the door to my room when I get there.

_What the hell was that? ___

__My body convulses and I collapse against the door, dry heaving up the pale blue smoke from before as my body is overcome with a bitter cold sensation. After a few minutes of vomiting up air, I slide down the door and onto the floor, curled up and shivering in a ball, my breathing ragged from exhaustion. Before I know it, I’ve slipped away into sleep and don’t wake up until the sun is streaming in through my windows._ _

__“Ugh...” I grunt, slowly sitting up, the effects of sleeping on the floor becoming apparent as my muscles and joints ache with every movement. Once I manage to stand up, I quickly prepare to head down stairs, changing out of yesterday’s clothes and throwing them away after noticing how tattered and dirty they are from the explosion. As I stand in front of the mirror above my dresser and start to fix my hair, pulling clumps of dirt and ash out of it, I begin to feel a tingling sensation pass through my limbs. Before I know what is happening, I’ve fallen through my bedroom floor, landing in the living room with a loud thud._ _

__“Danny?” My mother yells from the kitchen, rushing out with dad and Jazz on her heels, while Dash loiters in the doorway. “Are you alright?”_ _

__“Yeah,” I brush them off, taking my father’s hand to help me up. “I just tripped.”_ _

__“What are you doing in here?” Jazz asks, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion._ _

__“I... was looking,” I pause to think of a lie, not wanting to tell them that I just fell through the floor. “For my homework. I thought I might have left it in here.”_ _

__“You may have left it in the lab,” mom offers and I smile at her._ _

__“I’ll check there after breakfast.” We all wander together into the kitchen, where Dash is seated, silently eating a bowl of cereal. Seeing him here is so surreal, even eating breakfast with him, a relatively normal thing, is something I’d never imagined I’d do in a million years, but now, I might be doing it for the rest of my four years of high school._ _

__“Thank you for the meal, Mrs. Fenton,” Dash says, scarfing down the bowl of plain oats like it’s the best thing he’s ever eaten._ _

__“Of course, honey.” She pats him on the shoulder gently, making him pause a minute before returning to his food._ _

_Kiss ass. ___

__After finishing up breakfast, Jazz, Dash, and I collect our stuff and begin our walk to school, as I didn’t wake up early enough to escape on my own, and it’s just as uncomfortable as I’d imagined it to be. Jazz has never really liked Dash, mostly because she thinks he is a conceited jerk and knows that we don’t get along, but the fact that she is so stand-offish to him now is surprising, considering how happy she seemed about everything last night._ _

__“Uh,” Dash tries to break the awkward silence, for whatever reason. “I didn’t know you guys walked to school. I figured your dad would take you guys.”_ _

__“He doesn’t want to waste gas,” I reply without thinking, which surprises Dash a bit._ _

__“Oh...” he scratches the back of his neck. “It’s just that he picked me up yesterday and—” Jazz stops in her tracks, turning to face him._ _

__“Well how good for you,” she scoffs. “You seem to be fitting in comfortably with our family.”_ _

__“I didn’t mean it like that,” Dash backpedals, unsuccessfully, it seems. Suddenly, I feel the chill run down my spine again, my body shaking involuntarily, and Dash seems to notice this._ _

_Oh god. No... please! Not now! ___

__“I’m glad you didn’t,” she bites._ _

__“Um, did I do something to you?” He asks her, hands raised in submission._ _

__“Tucker and Sam told me what you did to Danny yesterday, you ass!” The conversation becomes background noise as I try to maintain my composure holding in the weird smoke for as long as I can, but I can’t help but keel over in pain as it tries to escape from my mouth._ _

__“I-I didn’t... it’s not...” Dash looks at me out of the corner of his eye, doing a double take when he sees me. “Uh, are you okay?”_ _

__“Oh, don’t think you can...” Jazz trails off when she notices me in pain. “Danny? What’s wrong?”_ _

__“I’m fine!” I shout, the smoke trailing out of my mouth and up my face. “Just leave me alone!” I stand upright and race down the street, ducking into an alleyway and hiding behind a dumpster as I begin to vomit._ _

__“Danny!” I hear their footsteps chasing me, and know I’ll be caught if they hear me, so I try to stifle my retching, but can’t. The heaving turns into heavy convulsions, as if something is trying to escape my body, and I begin to feel myself transforming into something else, a bright blue light emanating from around my torso area. “Danny, what’s wrong with you?” Jazz makes her way down the alleyway, pacing warily towards me. I look down at my hands and see the inverted colors of the jumpsuit covering my body, and without stopping to think, I phase through the wall in front of me and fly as fast and as far as I can with my eyes sealed shut, blocking out the world._ _

__After I’ve calmed down, I open my eyes to figure out where I am, and see that I am in an empty grocery store parking lot. Taking a moment to compose my thoughts, I sit down on a curb next to me, staring unamused at the newest surprise brought to me by my death._ _

_I have a fucking tail. _It moves about in curled arcs like a weightless tentacle, as if it has a mind of its own, which I realize makes it impossible for me to get rid of at this point. Defeated, I drop my head into my hands and rest them on my lap, trying to mentally sort things out.__ _So I have a tail now. And I can transform into this ghost form from my human form. Hopefully I’ll be able to control that in the future. So does this mean that I’m dead or not?_

__I reach up to my neck to feel my pulse, but can’t feel anything through the gloves of the suit._ _ _I wonder if I can take this thing off? Though I should probably wait to try until the tail leaves. _My tail wiggles as if in response to my thoughts.__ _Also, I can phase through things in my human form, this morning proved that. So I’ll have to be careful that I don’t my powers in front of people. But how did I transform into this... thing? It must’ve had something to do with that smoke stuff. It made me feel really cold and... well, dead._

I shake my head, feeling like I’m going nowhere. As I sit on the curb silently, I try to prevent myself from thinking about these things anymore, settling to worry about the classes that I am currently skipping. “Shit,” I sigh, but my wallowing is interrupted when I feel myself gasp, releasing a large plume of the blue smoke from before, but it doesn’t have the same effect on me as it did earlier. “Damn it! I hate this stuff!” The words are barely out of my mouth before I feel a large gust of wind blow past me, almost sending me out of my seat with the force.

_What the fuck was that? ___


	3. Ghost Hunting

On instinct, I bolt out of my seat and chase after the creature, flying through the air at full speed, trying to catch up to the creature with no idea about what I’ll do when I reach it, but I can see it in the distance, it’s body pulsating with bright green light, inspiring me to fly faster. I notice that we have looped around and are heading back towards the high school, passing by a mass of people at mach speeds, most of whom turn their heads to look at us as we charge forward. _Well, great now everyone knows that there are ghosts around. ___

The chase continues as the ghost barrels past city hall, where the mayor no doubt saw and immediately reported it. “Hey!” I shout, barely behind the figure, who dives into an alleyway to shake me off, while I barely manage to make the turn, colliding into the far wall before continuing my chase. “Who are you? What are you doing here?” The ghost doesn’t stop, even though I’m gaining on it pretty quickly. It swims through a few buildings and I follow, barely able to phase through each time, until we get to the street just in front of the high school. The ghost slows upon seeing the sign for Amity High, giving me just enough time to grab one of its tails, which feels slimy and slippery to the touch. It resists my grasp, but I pull it backwards and slam it into the sidewalk, hovering over it as it cries out in anguish, meanwhile the pedestrians around us begin to panic, screaming and running for cover.

_It’s not gonna be long before they get here. ___

__“What are you doing here?” I question. While it tries to recover, my eyes drift down the ghost’s body, analyzing it. It has multiple tails— no, tentacles on its body that squirm around and produce a strange goo, but his body seems to maintain a human like shape, though its head is obscenely large. “Hey, come on, you’re not hurt that bad.”_ _

__“That’s where you’re right,” it says, reaching out a tentacle towards me and wrapping itself around my waist. I writhe around, trying to get free as its grip tightens around me, toying with the idea of crushing me. “So you’re the stupid kid who opened the portal for us.” It analyses me, moving its bobble head closer to my face._ _

__“What do you mean?” I gasp, struggling to breathe._ _

__“When you turned on that device that those idiot hunters have,” he chuckles. “You created a rift between the ghost world and the human one.” My eyes widen in shock. “You didn’t know? We assumed that’s what you were trying to do in the first place.”_ _

“I...” it’s tentacle is wrapped so tightly around me at this point that I can’t speak, and my words come out as a high pitched wheezing sound. _I let this thing out? I opened the ghost portal? That can’t be right, it wasn’t working when I left the lab last night. ___

__“You seem distracted,” the ghost shakes me around, bringing my attention back to the present moment. “Don’t be rude, focus on our conversation before you die.” Before I have time to react, I hear a loud whirring sound and both me and the ghost turn to see my mom firing off an ecto-annihilator, which rips through the ghost’s tentacle and drops to the ground with me in it, where it writhes around for a moment before melting into goo. The tentacle ghost scoffs in irritation, diving into the concrete, while my mom reloads and aims her gun at me, and all I can do is just sit there like a ghost in headlights, until Tentacles pops up behind her and dad. I manage to find my strength, flying forward as fast as I can to stop him from attacking them, but the ghost hits my dad into the side of van, knocking him out before I can reach him and distracting mom so that she misses her shot at me._ _

__“Stop!” I scream, charging at the ghost and tacking it towards the ground, inadvertently pushing us underneath the surface together, and when we pop up, we are within the school gates. In response, he reaches out and grabs me again, choosing to slam me into the roof of the building instead of crushing me to death, which I almost appreciate. Luckily, I just barely manage to phase through, landing inside one of the classrooms and breaking a table in half when my power wears off. I roll onto my side and prop myself up to look around, scanning to see if I’ve hurt anyone, when I lock eyes with Sam, who stares back at me with mouth agape and eyes widened. After forcing myself to look away, I notice the octo-ghost lifting it’s arm up towards the wall, preparing to cave it in, and I manage to knock the students next to the impact zone out of the way just in time for me to get buried underneath the rubble. Without thinking, I phase myself through the floor and fly through another populated classroom, only to emerge in the main hallway, where my mother is situated with her weapon, making me question if I should’ve just let the ghost knock her out._ _

__The classroom ahead of me opens its doors and a class files out, heading towards the exit in far too calm a manner. Among them is Dash, who tries to slip out the door only to get stopped by my mom. “Dash! Great, you’re here! I’ll show you how to kill a ghost, just like your father did!”_ _

__“Uh...” Dash shifts nervously in the crowd, who waits for him expectantly, as do I. “Okay...” His response surprises me a bit, but the momentary distraction gives Tentacles enough time to sneak up on me, diving in through the ceiling to attack me and knocking the wind out of me as he slams me to the floor._ _

__“Oh, look, Dash!” Mom aims her gun at the ghost in excitement. “Another one!” As she takes aim, I focus on coming up with a plan, settling on something slightly risky, before turning my attention back towards their encounter. Mom fires, shooting a bright green beam of light towards the octopus, but it passes harmlessly through him. “What?” She stares at him in confusion, looking towards Dash who gapes bewildered at his first real encounter with a ghost. Tentacles cackles, releasing me in order to swim towards the two of them, while mom hastily reloads her gun, which is rendered pointless when the ghost snags the device and shatters it beneath his tentacled grasp._ _

__“It was a nice shot,” he snickers. “But your flimsy weapons are no match for a ghost like me—” mom whips out a gun from her holster firing it on him in a split second, not giving him enough time to dodge and leaving him with a singed eye. “Gah!” He lashes out, reaching a tentacle towards them, but I manage to grab it in time, throwing him down the hall. Mom takes aim at me, but I duck out of the way and fly down the hall, landing a fist on the ghost before he grabs me again. This time, however, I flip him over and kick him into the air, just as my mom fires her pistol, landing the shot right in the middle of the ghost’s chest. It cries out in pain, landing across the room, but the gun wasn’t enough and it gets back up before I can catch my breath, making my plan an ultimate failure. Angrily, he whips his arm out and knocks me into a wall of lockers before sailing down the hall to take out mom in the same way._ _

__“No!” I shout, but she’s already trapped under the pile of metal. I duck under the floor and pop up in front of the ghost, swiftly punching it back down the hall, but he continues his pursuit towards us._ _

__“Dash!” I hear my mom yell, making me spin around. She tosses him the gun, which he promptly picks up with shaking hands, locking eyes with me when he looks up, the fear apparent on his face. And in that moment, despite all of the bullying, despite all of our arguments, despite all of the pain between us, I feel an overwhelming sense of duty, a responsibility to protect him. Stepping in front of him, I raise my hands, ready for a fight, ready to take on the ghost in front of me, and my hands begin to glow a bright green color. When I swing at the ghost, my arm seems to move much quicker than before and the punch hits much stronger, leveling the ghost into the floor. My next swing sends him back into the air and my final hit sends him flying into pieces, the remnants of his body scattering across the room with a splat._ _

__The room is completely silent, save for my heavy breathing, but when I turn back to Dash, checking to see if he is okay, the only thing I notice is the gun that is leveled at me. “Shoot Dash!” Mom yells, but neither of us really seem to hear her, instead, we stare each other in the eyes, communicating through our unblinking gaze. I wait a moment to see if Dash will do something, and when he doesn’t, I quickly move to phase through the nearest wall, waiting in shock on the other side, trying to wrap my head around this afternoon. “Why didn’t you shoot him?” I can still hear my mother through the thin classroom walls._ _

“The gun jammed,” Dash lies and I can feel his eyes lingering on the spot that I left through. Not wanting to give them another opportunity to kill me, I phase through the outer wall of the building and fly off down the road towards my house, but despite everything that has happened, I can’t help the smile that forms on my face. _Now all that I have to do is think of a good alibi for where I was today. ___

__As I fly discreetly towards my house, sneaking down a back alley and avoiding main roads in an attempt to stay out of sight of the public, my vision begins to fade and my body starts to sink lower to the ground. I shake my head, trying to keep awake until my tail can no longer form anymore and I crash to the ground with barely enough energy to stand. Dragging myself along the wall of the alley, I try to make it home before I collapse, but my legs give out on me and I drop to my knees, helpless as my body begins to transform back into its normal self. “Huh...” I say, staring down at my hands as I wiggle my ungloved fingers, before collapsing into a heap as I loose consciousness in a dirty alley for the second time in as many days._ _

__When I wake up, I’m on my living room couch with my mother holding a thermometer over my forehead. “He doesn’t have a temperature,” her voice sounds worried. She notices my open eyes and nearly falls off of the couch in surprise, holding her chest dramatically. “Danny! You’re awake!” She grabs me by the shoulders and hugs me tightly._ _

__“What happened?” I ask._ _

__“Jazz found you in an alley a block from the house,” she says, placing the back of her hand against my forehead, as if she can determine something that the thermometer can’t. “You were passed out and were bleeding from your nose!” She grabs my face and analyses it thoroughly, pressing hard into the side of my head where a bruise is forming. Reflexively, I flinch back and push mom’s hand away, which makes her look even more concerned._ _

__“I must’ve hit my head when I passed out,” I explain, then try to change the subject. “I heard there was a ghost attack.”_ _

__“Yes there was! And you weren’t at the school!” She chastises me. “If you weren’t feeling well, honey, you should’ve just told us. I should’ve known something was wrong when you fell in the living room this morning.”_ _

__“I’m okay,” I tell her, placing my hand on her wrist. “I’m really okay, mom. I think I’m just really tired. I haven’t been sleeping well lately.”_ _

__“Sleep is important, honey!” She works herself up again, standing up abruptly in distress. “I’ll go make you some chamomile tea.” She walks off into the kitchen, muttering to herself about melatonin production and insomnia, which I tune out. As I go to lay back down, I notice Dash standing at the bottom of the stairs, staring at me from outside the living room. Strangely enough, he steps forward into the living room with me, never taking his prodding eyes off of my face._ _

__“What do you want Dash?” I groan, flopping back down on the pillow, trying to avoid the small pulsing headache that is starting to come on. “I’m not feeling well so if you—” He turns around and leaves the room before I can finish my sentence._ _

__“Feel better,” he mutters, though I can barely hear him, then he heads back up the stairs without another word. Mom paces back into the room with tea and a bowl of almonds, which I take a large handful of as soon as they are within my reach._ _

__“Oh, Danny,” she sighs, sitting down on the couch with me as I drink the tea, which makes me up my nose at the bitterness. “You won’t believe what I had to deal with today. Two, TWO ghosts Danny! They were fighting each other, maybe some kind of terf war, I don’t know, but one of them got away, that menace. When I catch him, I’m going to have an interesting little experiment with him in my lab.” I almost drop my cup in terror, imagining what she’ll do to me if she catches me. “Oh, but don’t worry, honey, I won’t let any ghosts hurt you!” She reaches over and hugs me again, squishing my face into her shoulder and making me feel a bit more relaxed._ _

__“Heh,” I sigh, forcing myself to smile at the irony. “Thanks mom.”_ _

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all so so much for reading! I am really excited to share this series with you all, so I’m happy to see the positive reception. I will be publishing the next part next week, so stay tuned for that! In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts and what I can improve on, or what you’d all like to see from the series in the future! Thank you all so much again!


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